The present invention relates to reclining chairs, and in particular to such chairs wherein the seating is suspended from the frame by means of flexible members such as cables, plastic or metallic strips, chains, or the like.
The ubiquitous office task chair, normally comprises a spider base with caster wheels, supporting a height adjustable column which is connected at its upper end to a reclining mechanism having a pivotal axis extending from side to side of the seating. The mechanism must further include a powerful spring to keep the seating in an upright position. As a result, any seating position change is acquired and/or retained by the chair user virtually fighting off the spring with its back and legs. The spring is necessary because the center of gravity of the load (seating plus user weight), being above the pivotal axis makes for a very unstable arrangement. Without the spring the seating would slump against the forward stop (upright position), or the backward stop (fully reclined position), and any intermediate position would be impossible to maintain.
Heretofore attempts have been made to improve upon the basic arrangement such as the recliner described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,591,233 and the glider described in U.S Pat. No. 4,213,650. These arrangements could not, however, by effectively utilized for the design of an office task chair.
It is the principal object of the present invention to provide an improved office task chair which does away with the conventional construction described above.
It is a further object to provide such a chair which is comfortable for the user, safe and economical to manufacture.
A still further object of the present invention is to provide a reclining chair wherein the seating is suspended from the chair frame by flexible means which permit a user to change the relative position of the seating with respect to said chair frame.
Yet another object of this invention is to provide an office task chairs the reclining mechanism may easily be hidden from an outside observer thereby greatly enhancing the aesthetics of the chairs appearance.